Shadow Priest Basics

[This post is outdated! This describes shadow in patch 4.3. An updated guide for 5.0 is available here.]

My previous post was an advanced guide to shadow priest DPS. This post is to help new shadow priests get started. If you just turned 85, or you're just now becoming a shadow priest after a lifetime of healing, this is a guide for you.

Gearing

As of patch 4.3, Priests desire gear with the following stats:

1. Intellect
2. Spell Power
3. Haste (until 30% haste)
4. Hit or Spirit (until cap - 17% for raids, 6% for heroic 5mans, 4% for PvP)
5. Haste
6. Critical Strike
7. Mastery

This order of desirability will change when you reach raid-ready gear levels, particularly if you pick up certain proc-trinkets, or the shadow tier-13 4-set bonus. New shadow priests should prioritize stats in this order though.
A common question regarding shadow priest gear is "do we take hit cloth or spirit cloth?" The answer is both. Hit and spirit are equally valuable for shadow, so treat them just the same when you decide whether to take an item or not.
Enchants
You'll want to enchant your gear before heading into a raid. Use the following enchants, unless your profession gives you a better one:

• Head: Arcanum of Hyjal - Bought for 150g from the Hyjal rep vendor. Requires Revered, consider wearing the tabard while you do your heroics.
• Shoulders: Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone - Bought for 75g from the Therazane rep vendor. Requires Exalted, and there is a rep tabard.
• Cloak: Greater Intellect - Made by enchanters.
• Chest: Peerless Stats - Made by enchanters. This can be pretty expensive, Mighty Stats is a cheaper alternative.
• Wrist: Mighty Intellect - Made by enchanters. This can be pretty expensive, Precision is a cheaper alternative.
• Hands: Haste - Made by enchanters. Greater Mastery is better under most circumstances, once you're geared up, but is more expensive.
• Belt: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle - Made by blacksmiths. Be sure to fill the socket. (See gems, below.)
• Legs: Powerful Ghostly Spellthread - Made by tailors.
• Boots: Lavawalker - Made by enchanters. This can be pretty expensive, Haste is a cheaper alternative, and offers better DPS if you never have to move. (For now, trust me that the movement speed makes Lavawalker better in most cases.)
• Weapon: Power Torrent - Made by enchanters. Despite the cost, there is no decent alternative.
• Off-Hand: Superior Intellect - Made by enchanters.

Gems
Be sure to fill your sockets. If you can't afford rare gems, buy cheaper uncommon gems instead. Very few people are willing to drop the huge amount of gold to buy epic gems. In general, the lower-quality gems you're using, the more important it is to match the socket color. (Socketed items come with a Socket Bonus, some bonus stats you get for filling the sockets with gems of the same color. You are not required to socket gems that match the color; sometimes filling in with red gems is better.)

• Meta: Always use Burning Shadowspirit Diamond.
• Red: Always use Brilliant gems. (Rare, uncommon.)
• Yellow: Use Reckless if the socket bonus is at least 20 Int. (Rare, uncommon.) Use a red gem otherwise.
• Blue: Use Purified if the socket bonus is at least 20 Int. (Rare, uncommon.) Use a red gem otherwise.

If you can't afford the recommended gem for a given slot, you can use Reckless in red sockets, or use Reckless/Purified in Yellow/Blue sockets even when the socket bonus is small.
Glyphs
Wear the following glyphs. Listed in order of importance within each category.
Prime

• Mind Flay - Mandatory.
• Shadow Word: Death
• Shadow Word: Pain
• (Dispersion) - Optional: Can be helpful on some fights to protect against damage or regain mana. I recommend replacing Shadow Word: Pain if you decide to use this, however it has been argued that replacing Shadow Word: Death may be viable as well.

Major

• Spirit Tap
• Psychic Scream - Mandatory for 5mans.
• (Mass Dispel) - Optional: Helpful on some fights if you need to dispel your party or foes.
• (Psychic Horror) - Optional: Helpful in 5mans if you spec into Psychic Horror.
• (Inner Fire) - Optional: Helpful if you pull aggro or otherwise take physical damage.

Minor

• Fading - Only minor glyph with any significant effect in combat.
• (Others) - Optional. None of the others have a significant impact on combat.

Spec
Standard spec: 8/0/31 (+2) - Use the spec in the link, and spend the leftover two talent points in whatever you like. Psychic Horror is a good choice for 5mans.
"Rotation"
Commonly, I get asked by new shadow priests what the rotation is. My answer is, invariably, it depends. Use the following priority list for boss fights:

1. Vampiric Touch
2. Shadow Word: Pain
3. Devouring Plague
4. Shadowfiend
5. Dark Archangel (with 5 Dark Evangelism)
6. Shadow Word: Death (if target is below 25% HP, or you're low on mana)
7. Mind Blast (with at least 1 Shadow Orb)
8. Mind Flay

Try to re-cast DoTs only when they have less than 3 seconds remaining.
For trash, use Mind Sear if it is likely to all die within a few seconds, or if there are 4+ foes. Beware, this can break crowd control spells. If you need to avoid breaking CC, or if the foes are spread out too much, you can't use Mind Sear.
If you can't use Mind Sear for trash, you have two options. In both cases, use Shadow Word: Death to finish off low-HP foes.

• If the trash is likely to live for at least 15 seconds still use your boss rotation. Try to keep Vampiric Touch active on everything.
• If the trash will probably all die faster than that, use Mind Spike 3 times, then cast Mind Blast. Repeat until everything dies.

Buffs
Make sure you have the following buffs on you. These are all buffs you can supply to yourself.

• Shadowform
• Inner Fire
• Vampiric Embrace
• Power Word: Fortitude
• Shadow Protection
• Well Fed (Severed Sagefish Head/Fortune Cookie)
• Flask of the Draconic Mind - These can be fairly expensive. It's ok to save them for raids.

Moving Forward
As you go from fresh 85 to raid-geared, you'll encounter some changes.
With rising stats and set bonuses, you'll have fewer issues with mana due to more shorter Shadowfiend cooldowns. Due to this, you'll be able to use Devouring Plague to deal damage while moving without going OOM, and you'll be able to stop using Shadow Word: Death for the mana return. You'll also be able to take over or assist in healing for a longer, but still short, time if necessary.
With rising mastery, your Empowered Shadows buff becomes more important to maintain. There's a section labelled 'Buff Management' concerning this in the Advanced Shadow Priest DPS guide from last week.
Haste will also begin to taper off in value, and likely be surpassed by mastery, particularly as you get better at managing Empowered Shadows. In general, try to hit 30% haste without going too far over that, and use Reforging to convert your excess to mastery, where possible.
FAQ
Q: Help! I'm out of mana all the time and my DPS is terrible!
A: Shadow priests have mana problems at very low gear levels (fresh 85). Make sure to use your cooldowns whenever they become available; they don't just boost your damage, they also restore a lot of mana. Use Shadow Word: Death to finish off low-HP foes, or even use it on high-HP foes if you're running out of mana. Intellect, Hit, Spirit, Haste and Crit on gear all help your mana last longer. The 2-piece tier-12 bonus helps immensely and can be bought for Justice Points. Make sure to only re-cast DoTs when they're almost over (and not if the foe is about to die). Use Mind Flay to refresh Shadow Word: Pain instead of re-casting it. Use Dispersion if you can't DPS (for example, between fights.)

Q: DoTs don't seem to be worth it, everything dies too fast!
A: Shadow has a hard time dealing significant damage to anything that doesn't survive for at least 15 seconds. Use Mind Sear or the Mind Spike/Mind Blast rotation on foes that will die quickly.

Q: I can't seem to do more than 20k DPS, and I'm doing everything you said here.
A: You've mastered the basics! Time for some advanced lessons: see last week's article.
Closing
There you have it, a simple, direct guide to shadow priest basics. Was this helpful? Did I forget something? Tell me in the comments. Also, if this was helpful, pass it on to other shadow priests you know.
Next Friday, I'll post a fight-specific breakdown of things you can do to help your DPS and your raid in Dragon Soul.

Advanced Shadow Priest DPS

[This post is outdated! This describes Shadow in patch 4.3. An updated guide for 5.0 is in the works. I'd rather not post crap though, so it'll be up when it's good and ready.]

This is a guide to preforming high sustained DPS against a single target that will survive for several minutes. This guide also assumes high-end normal Dragon Soul gear levels, and basic knowledge of spriest-related abbreviations and rotation/priority order. This guide is unlikely to be applicable to non-raid situations, or to non-raid-geared shadow priests.

DoT Uptime

Shadow priest DPS is based primarily off of DoT effects. The most basic and central skill for any raiding shadow priest is maximizing DoT uptime, and to a lesser extent, minimizing DoT casts. When a DoT is cast, one of two things happen:

• If that DoT was not already active on that target, then it applies the DoT to the target. The game records your current spellpower, haste, crit and damage multipliers (Dark Evangelism, Empowered Shadow, Dark Intent, etc.) These values, if changed after applying a DoT, will not effect that DoT. For Devouring Plague, it will also strip the DP DoT off anything else it was on, if applicable.
• Otherwise, it will refresh the current DoT, plus one tick, without delaying the next tick. Spellpower, haste, crit and damage multipliers are re-recorded. Shadow Word: Pain refreshes from Mind Flay also work this way.

Thus, it is optimal to refresh VT when it has exactly one tick remaining. Refreshing earlier wastes time on casting which could have been used for Mind Flay. Recasting later delays DoT ticks. The duration of this window of opportunity is 3.0 seconds, unhasted, or about 2.2 seconds with current gear. This window drops to 1.7-1.8 seconds for DoTs under Heroism. Use an addon which marks remaining DoT durations textually, and aim to refresh VT within that window. Remember to account for the cast time; you'll want to begin the cast early.

Due to Improved Devouring Plague, refreshing DP prematurely is not a damage loss if it is displacing Mind Flay. Use DP as filler when moving, or refresh when the time is low. If VT and DP conflict, VT is more important. However, this should not happen, as you can simply cast DP ahead of time to eliminate the conflict.

Plan for interruptions. When you will have to move (or Dispersion, or Divine Hymn, or...) it is a damage gain to refresh DoTs early if you would be unable to refresh them in the window of opportunity.

DoT Summary:

• SW:P - Refreshed by Mind Flay.
• VT - Reapply with <2.2 sec remaining. (Begin cast 2.2-3.3 sec remaining.)
• DP - Reapply any time before it expires.

Buff Management and DoT Recasting

Next up is buff management. Dark Evangelism and Empowered Shadow both dramatically boost DoT damage. Managing them is the next skill to master for aspiring shadow priests.

Dark Evangelism will be at maximum potency for most of the fight, and should only become inactive at the start of the fight, or immediately following Dark Archangel. Thus, DoTs cast at those times are weaker than DoTs cast the rest of the time. Despite this, it is better to begin combat by applying all DoTs immediately (unless opening with 4pc t13; see below.) When Dark Archangel becomes available, hold it until you will not need to refresh any DoTs within the next 5 seconds. Dark Evangelism adds 10% DoT damage.

Empowered Shadow is often misunderstood by new priests. This is the buff gained by casting Mind Blast with at least one shadow orb. The potency of Empowered Shadow is the same, regardless of the number of shadow orbs consumed. As long as at least one orb was spent, you gain a full-potency Empowered Shadow. In current gear Empowered Shadow adds about 32% DoT damage.

These numbers are quite significant. If you have an active DoT that was cast without Empowered Shadows, and you gain Empowered Shadow, you should reapply all DoTs. Similarly, if you foresee the Empowered Shadow expiring, it is wise to reapply prematurely. These guidelines also hold for Heroism. (Note: While DP is obvious to refresh, some people dispute refreshing VT when gaining buffs. This is wrong. Always reapply VT when entering any buffs worth at least +20% DoT DPS. Due to DoT refresh mechanics and the cast time of VT, it's impossible to reapply it "too early" for a buff.)

Also of note for AoE situations: Empowered Shadow effects Mind Sear ticks, but Dark Evangelism does not. Consider holding a shadow orb in anticipation of an upcoming AoE phase, or for prolonged AoE, consider rolling SW:P on 2-3 targets for the orb procs.

Gaming Mastery buffs will not be covered in this article, as such trinkets are sub-par in current raids, even when used well. If you use one, I recommend Google-ing: shadow priest game mastery proc.

Buff management summary:

• Re-cast VT and DP when entering buffs worth at least 20% DoT DPS. SW:P updates automatically.
• Re-cast VT and DP before losing buffs worth at least 20% DoT DPS.

Mind Blast and Shadow Orbs

There are three common schools of thought relating to using Mind Blast: use immediately, wait for 1 shadow orb, or wait for 3 shadow orbs. To put it simply, waiting for 3 shadow orbs is wrong. Use Mind Blast whenever it is available and you have at least 1 Shadow Orb.

See my detailed analysis here, if interested.

Clipping Mind Flay

Mind Flay is the shadow priest filler spell, used only when no other spell needs casting. Due to being channeled, it is possible to interrupt MF mid-cast, and still gain part of its benefit. We call this "clipping".

Interrupting MF with a new MF causes no damage loss; like DoTs, it refreshes with an extra tick and will not delay the next tick. Because channeled spells do not work properly with the spell queue, whenever you cast MF back-to-back, you should clip it.

Interrupting MF with anything else, in a perfect world, does not have to waste any time. In practice, however, any spell following MF, clipped or not, wastes a small amount of time. There are two "perfect" times to clip MF: immediately following the second tick, and immediately following the completion of the channel. Clipping after the first tick is impossible due to the GCD. Whenever you need to interrupt MF for another spell, aim for after 2 ticks or after completion.

Despite all efforts to the contrary, there will always be some variability in latency, and in your own reaction times. This is devastating if it causes you to clip immediately before a tick. Aim for a split second after the tick, just in case. (This can be worth about 1.5-2k DPS.)

Even when your clips do occur shortly after a tick, you waste a non-zero amount of time with every clip. For this reason, you should aim to clip as rarely as possible. Since casting DP early is DPS-neutral, you can use DP as "glue" to connect multiple interruptions together, if they're less than 1 GCD apart. For example, if you need to cast VT at time X, and MB at time X+3, then casting VT-DP-MB makes more sense than attempting to cast VT-MF2-MB. (MF2 refers to Mind Flay, clipped after the second tick.)

Movement

As a caster, we don't like having to move. As raiders, we have to move. This is a conflict. Most spells cannot be cast while moving. The four spells we can use to fill movement time, in order of desirability, are: Shadowfiend, Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Death, and Shadow Word: Pain.

For short bursts of movement (1 sec or less), use DP to cover the gap. For longer movement, and because DP cannot be cast back-to-back (you get an error message preventing this) alternate DP and SW:D, starting with DP. Cast SW:P instead of SW:D while moving if it's not active on the target.

Movement summary:

• For non-execute phase:
• 1 GCD - DP
• 2 GCD - DP, SW:D
• 3+ GCD - DP, SW:D, DP, -wait-, DP... repeat. This can be taxing on mana, however the damage gain outweighs the loss from needing to use SW:D rotationally after movement is complete.
• During execute phase, with SW:D off cooldown:
• 1 GCD - SW:D
• 2 GCD - SW:D, SW:D
• 3 GCD - SW:D, SW:D, DP.
• 4 GCD - SW:D, DP, SW:D, DP. While this does delay the next pair of SW:D casts, the damage gain from casting while moving outweighs the loss from delaying SW:D.
• 5+ GCD - DP, SW:D, DP, SW:D, DP, -wait-, DP... repeat. Same as above.

Cooldowns

Shadow priests have three DPS cooldowns, not including use-trinkets (which aren't prevalent in Dragon Soul, anyway): Shadowfiend, Dark Archangel, and Volcanic Potion. Usage depends on whether or not you have 4pc t13.

No 4pc t13: Use SF and DA whenever they become available. SF will lose some damage if you switch targets shortly after casting it, as it will switch with you, causing it to lose melee swings to movement. DA will lose some damage if you need to recast DoTs shortly after casting it, or need to move during its duration. Using them at the same time is irrelevant. Both combine well with Heroism, and you should use your Volcanic Potion with Heroism as well. Shadowfiend only benefits from Heroism if it is summoned before Heroism is cast.

4pc t13: With the set bonus, SF generates 3 shadow orbs every hit. When doing the "normal" rotation, most of these will be wasted, due to the Mind Blast cooldown. Instead, save SF until you will not need to move or change targets within the 15 second SF duration. (If a fight's mechanics are such that this is an impossibility, consider using 2pc t12 instead, if available.) Use it, then use the Mind Spike burst DPS rotation until you've cast 2 Mind Blasts. Remember to /cancelaura Mind Melt twice right before Mind Blast. Reapply DoTs afterwards. On some fights, it is helpful to open with this; Mind Flay until DA is available, do not apply DoTs until afterwards. Other than at the start of a fight, holding DA to sync with SF, and holding SF to sync with DA are both a damage loss.

Sample Mind Blast macro for use with 4pc t13:

• #showtooltip Mind Blast /cancelaura [mod] Mind Melt /cancelaura [mod] Mind Melt /cast Mind Blast

Pre-Potting

Serious shadow priests should carry and use Volcanic Potions on progression fights. While I explained when to use a Volcanic Potion mid-fight in the above section, you can also use a second Volcanic Potion at the beginning of the fight. Nearly all potions share a 1 minute cooldown, with a catch: the cooldown will not begin unless or until you're out of combat. If you drink a Volcanic potion shortly before the fight begins, you'll start out with the 1200 Intellect buff, and about 1 minute into the fight, you'll become able to drink one again. This technique is known as pre-potting, and can be done with any potion.

Healing

Shadow priests offer serious healing support in short bursts. When planned in advance with your raid, this can greatly aid progression. See my full article for whens and how-tos.

Closing

Whew! There you have it, all the non-fight-specific advanced shadow priests rotational topics I could think of off the top of my head. Did I forget anything? Did this help? Leave a comment, us bloggers love to know people are reading our stuff.

Also, if anyone from Blizzard sees this, feel free to use the "Dark Archangel" image I made to give us an alternate spell icon in Shadowform.

Reducing Startup Time in Windows

Hey, everyone, it's been a while since my last post. Today I'm writing about something a little bit different. Today, I'm going to explain how to use msconfig to make your computer start up faster.

Caveats: This guide is written based on Windows 7 Home Edition; while I can personally vouch for the process being very similar in Windows 7 Starter, I can't say the same for all versions of Windows 7, let alone older versions. Also, it is likely that you will disable something you'll want turned back on again. Keep note of what you turn off so that you can undo the changes if you need to.

Step 1: Open the start menu, type "run" into the search box, and hit enter.

Step 2: Type "msconfig" into the box and hit enter (or click OK.)

Step 3: In the 'General' tab, (it should start out with this tab open, but it might not, so switch to it if needed,) choose 'Selective startup'. Don't change anything else in this tab; it will update itself automatically to match what we're going to do in the other tabs.

Step 4: Switch to the 'Services' tab. This will have a big list of program components that get started when your computer boots up. Most of them are parts of Windows. You can hide the Windows components by checking the 'Hide all Microsoft services' checkbox. You'll be left with a short list of programs that you or a family member installed. Leave antivirus software enabled, but other than that, uncheck anything you don't use absolutely every single time you use your computer. This will not prevent you from opening those programs later; it just won't pre-load them during the boot. If you don't know what it is, leave it checked.

Step 5: Switch to the 'Startup' tab. You'll have another, smaller list of programs. This one is exclusively non-critical stuff that you or a family member installed. Uncheck everything except for antivirus software and things you use every single time you turn on your PC. If you don't know what it is, uncheck it. Once you're finished, click OK.

Step 6: The system will request to restart. Unless you have some reason not to, go ahead and restart it. It should start up much more quickly than you're used to. After the restart, if you notice something doesn't work that you want back, you can re-enable it the same way.

So, what does this all have to do with raiding in WoW? Not a lot, I guess. Have you ever had a computer crash mid-raid though? This might help you get back into the game faster, and more importantly, less frustrating waiting as you start your computer up every day!

Next post, I'll be talking about Shadow Priest DPS, with in-depth rotational advice, and mechanical tips.